Of course there is no comparison between Vancouver and Victoria, but I think Victoria flys under the radar because of the type of development that occurs here. One day I should really do a map with a legend to show recently completed, under construction and proposed.
As for Victoria being ‘stalled’ in urban development I shared these numbers in the Stats Canada thread, numbers from end of March 2024:
Total Under Construction/Percentage being Apartments:
Victoria: 8003 (7043 apartments - 88%)
Kelowna: 5522 (4372 apartments -79.2%)
Regina: 1366 (1,048 apartments -76.7%)
Saskatoon: 2811 (1873 apartments - 66.6%)
Moncton: 3,116 (2,615 apartments - 83.9%)
Edmonton: 13,700 (7,474 apartments - 54.6%)
Victoria pretty much matches Edmonton for number of apartments (includes condos) under construction despite being 1/3 the population.
Victoria has never allowed anything over 30 storeys but that has changed with recent approvals, so most buildings in the pipeline are still in the 6 to 20 storey range. But the building is consistent and replacing under utilized buildings or the few remaining parking lots in the downtown and making it significantly dense for a smaller city. Kelowna’s boom is more noticeable as you can easily count the tall buildings looking at the skyline now and when you add a dozen 30 to low 40 storey new towers they will really stand out. It seems to be following a more Vancouver style of development, except with the parking podiums in Kelowna. Great to see the growth there, I just wish Nanaimo could have similar in terms of downtown development.
Anyways there is a bunch of stuff being built that continue to expand and density the downtown in a significant way, if not always in height. Like I said I’ll try to visually share that when I have time.
I went for a walk this afternoon and they were tearing down the remaining structure of the former Pacific Mazda at Cook and Yates. I’ve included the rendering below. In the background you can see a nearly completed infill building that they somehow squeezed into a tiny parking lot. You can also see just a bit on the left hand side of the Victoria Fire Hall, which I would say is significant in terms of the amount of housing built on top of it, more so than you’ll find in most Canadian cities. Let’s not also forget that Telus Ocean is nearing ground level and that Hudson One is one of the best looking 20 something storey towers in the country, not to mention one of the best restoration/redevelopment of a historic department store in the country. Oh, the $300 million dollar new Belleville Terminal in the inner harbour is also underway - completion date 2028. Small potatoes compared to Vancouver - yep, but all good urbanism that works.
1050 Yates Street - Victoria BC, April 22, 2024. by
JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr
1050 Yates Street - Victoria BC by
JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr
Telus Ocean Construction - March 5, 2024 by
JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr